Citizens, Community and Crime Control

From reporting crimes to volunteering for the police, it is clear that citizens and communities play fundamental roles in policing and the construction of crime control. Embedded in the examples of police-community consultation, community policing, Neighbourhood Watch, citizen patrols, the Special Constabulary and Police Support Volunteers, this book provides a timely examination of the forms and functions of citizen and community participation in policing.

Drawing on thinkers as diverse as Plato and Putnam, Bullock explores the historical circumstances and theoretical sources that have generated ideas about citizen and community participation in crime control. The book considers how these concepts have come to inform government policy and contemporary police practice, and the impact citizen participation has had upon political decision-making, accountability and the promotion of a 'democratic' police service.

Analysing the nature, extent and parameters of citizens' participation and the problems that participation may produce in practice, this book will be an essential resource for scholars of Policing and Crime Control.

Karen Bullock is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology, University of Surrey, UK. She has published widely on contemporary policing and crime prevention theory and practice, and most recently on contemporary forms of community and intelligence-led policing, the impact of the 1998 Human Rights Act and volunteering within the police practice.

1. Introduction
2. Citizenship Participation and Democracy
3. Positioning the Citizen Within Contemporary Policing
4. Consultation
5. Community Policing
6. Neighbourhood Watch
7. Citizen Patrols
8. Volunteering in the Police Service
9. Indirect Democracy – Elections
10. Conclusion